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Mark your calendars for just before midnight on Oct. 15. That’s the deadline for FM stations looking to file a request for repack reimbursement funds from the Federal Communications Commission.

In August the Media Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force released a set of instructions for FM stations, LPTV stations and TV translator stations who are looking to receive reimbursement payments for costs incurred as result of the post-incentive auction repack.

Those instructions clarified which stations are eligible to be reimbursed from the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund and Reimbursement Expansion Act — the latter of which has made it possible for certain FM stations to be reimbursed for repack-related costs. The REA has appropriated an additional $1 billion to the fund for those stations (though the commission determined in a later report and order that payments to Class A stations and MVPD providers would take precedence over FM stations, LPTVs and TV translators).

For FM stations, the deadline is around the corner — stations are required to submit a reimbursement form by 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 15, 2019. Keep in mind that the recent extension announced by the Media Bureau is only for low-power and TV translator stations, not FM broadcasters.

A webinar clarifying the reimbursement process was held in August. A replay of that webinar can be found here under the “Education” tab.

 

The post Deadline Approaches for Reimbursement Requests appeared first on Radio World.

It’s often said that kids keep a person young. I can attest that my three have kept me a bit more in touch with reality than I would have been otherwise from news or focus groups. And whether they belong to you, a friend or a relative, it’s hard to miss that kids are the ultimate harbingers of change.

The YouTube channel of Power 106 Los Angeles, aka KPWR(FM), owned by Meruelo Media. A large subscriber base with low video views equals opportunity to invest in advertising to increase audience, while improving content and frequency of posting.

I first noticed my kids utilizing YouTube for music consumption about six years ago. I recall the jolt at the time; it actually made me feel bad that broadcast radio wasn’t totally meeting their needs.

Like you, I got over that feeling once I accepted the new on-demand enormity of YouTube, then recalled that radio still has a major role to play with its convenience, personalities, information and immediate relevance.

This evolution reminds me of when television first supplanted radio. The industry initially ignored the shift, but over time, adjusted — and when it did, what happened next? We made a U-turn and started advertising our product on TV!

In my previous article, we covered advertising on YouTube; if you haven’t read it, please do (radioworld.com, keyword Lapidus).

Now I’d like to address the importance of having a radio station YouTube channel.

LEARN FROM THE SUCCESSFUL

Wanna hang on to listeners or win over new ones? You gotta go where your audience does.

You execute this all the time when you send DJs to host concerts and events. The issue for many years now is that much of your audience is spending significant time elsewhere — online and with music apps. If you want to go where the fish are, you need a real presence.

The best example I’ve seen of a highly successful radio YouTube channel was created by the BBC’s Radio 1. I’m not alone in loving this channel; it has 6.9 million subscribers. Some videos have millions of views, many have hundreds of thousands of views and yes, they even have pieces in the mere thousands.

“Foul!” you cry. I can hear the haters now, saying in unison: “But the BBC is a fully funded network, propped up by the government. It doesn’t even have to make a profit!”

Can’t deny that. However, everyone needs something to aspire to, admire and emulate. I’m simply suggesting that you click around the channel and notice how they’ve constructed it, what videos are performing, how they promote their broadcast channel, and the amazing outpouring of emotion they get from their audience in the comments section.

If you want to go domestic, take a gander at NPR Music with its nearly 3 million subscribers or the other NPR channels with 206,000, 99,000 and 101,000, respectively. Try looking at your best-in-class format competitors to see what they’ve got brewing and what you’re up against.

It’s interesting to note that Power 106 in L.A. is at nearly a million subscribers but, like Z100 in New York, has a low viewing rate. This could indicate that the stations are not purchasing any YouTube advertising; that their audiences are not diggin’ what they’re posting; or that their frequency of posting (content velocity) is low, so the audience doesn’t actually participate regularly anyway.

CONSIDERATIONS

A few things to debate:

Should a morning show have its own YouTube channel, separate from the main radio station? While there’s no definitive answer to this, my gut tells me that integration is preferable simply because it’s desirous to maintain a steady flow of content velocity. If both the morning show and the station are creating product, the overall posting frequency will increase.

Another advantage is exposing what could be two audiences to one brand. Some morning shows will fight this hard because, from a brand/ownership perspective, they may want their show to fly solo in case at some point they decide to depart the mothership.

What about other streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music? No reason why you shouldn’t offer playlists of your own design or by artists who reside in your format. I’m not convinced it will have the same impact as a YouTube channel, but the effort and barriers to entry are low. Apple Music claims to be streaming 100,000+ radio stations. Is your station available?

Is there money to be made on YouTube? It doesn’t turn into serious change until a station achieves a large number of video views with viewers who will watch full 30-second pre-roll ads. This ad-sense (pre-roll) that you can activate at any time, may be setting up a barrier to entry. It isn’t something that requires serious discussion until you have a substantial audience. Another angle is to integrate sponsors into your content, probably the most appealing, as it could be tied to a station ad-buy.

A highly produced/professional YouTube channel does require an investment in money, time and resources, and I get that not all stations are able or willing to play. It would be very interesting to see if this can be done on a small- or medium-market level — highly localized with raw materials. Would it perform by itself and also help to maintain or grow ratings? Let me know of your own experience.

By the way, this isn’t about being futuristic or obsessing over a passing fancy. YouTube has been growing for years. If we ignore advertising on it, or avoid even the notion of our own channel, it could be at our own detriment.

Mark Lapidus is a longtime Radio World contributor. Comment on this or any story to radioworld@futurenet.com.

The post Visual Radio: Creating a YouTube Channel appeared first on Radio World.

“America’s broadcasters should look like America.”

That was FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, expressing “particular concern [about] the persistent lack of diversity in broadcast media ownership, and among its rank and file.”

The commissioner has been on the job for about nine months and is one of two Democrats on the five-member panel; he spoke Tuesday at the Media Institute Free Speech America Gala. Starks said that the FCC’s controlling statute “demands that we distribute [broadcast] licenses in a way that prevents too many from winding up in the same hands and promotes ownership by women and people of color. This is important. The capacity of broadcast media to empower and inform is indisputable, and it is critical that those exercising this power represent all of us, not a mere privileged or anointed few.”

However, he said, the commission has, “largely and over many decades,” failed in meeting its statutory goals and obligations in this regard. “This isn’t conjecture or political posturing. It isn’t even an opinion. It is a fact borne out by our data.” He noted that of 1,300 full-power TV stations licensed, only 12 were owned by African Americans.

Starks said the FCC currently has an opportunity: “As the Third Circuit Court of Appeals observed in its most recent media ownership decision, Prometheus v. FCC, the commission can and must do better in addressing the impact of its regulatory efforts on the ability of women and people of color to own stations. No longer can it rely on bad data and analysis while ignoring its obligations. The court sent back this FCC’s latest deregulatory efforts and demanded that we get the data and perform the analysis necessary to ensure that we are fully meeting our statutory requirements.”

However, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, head of the Republican majority on the commission, has been harshly critical of the court and of its latest decision. Pai said last month that for 15 years, the Third Circuit has blocked attempts to modernize regulations to “match the obvious realities of the media marketplace.”

Starks on Tuesday also called for the FCC to “redouble” its Equal Employment Opportunity efforts. “For 15 years, the commission has had an open rulemaking proposing to continue a decades-old data collection on the diversity of the broadcast workforce. And for 15 years, while we’ve been stuck in neutral, we’ve elicited zero visibility on whether station management and news teams reflect our communities. We cannot fully engage on this issue when our ability to understand the problem is compromised.”

He said new research, including disparity studies identifying past discrimination in licensing, could be critical to addressing the concerns of the court “and finally making good policy in this space.”

Earlier in his remarks, Starks expressed ardent support for a free press. “The American people have a deeply ingrained urge to seek out and wade through what the Supreme Court has called a ‘multiplicity of information.’ That’s a good thing because it is essential to our democracy that the American people go through the process of hearing from a wide range of sources, ideologies and viewpoints. … What we need, then, is a press that pursues unvarnished facts and, above all else, truth.”

Starks was nominated by President Trump and was confirmed by the Senate in January 2019.

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The post Starks Criticizes FCC Record on Media Diversity appeared first on Radio World.

The author is director of engineering for Broadcast Devices.

Your article “Fires, Your Station and You” was a great reminder to take a look around and introduce some common sense into planning for what we hope never happens. As the chief of a volunteer fire department I see lots of foolish and sometimes even borderline criminal things. Our mantra is (unfortunately) “You can’t fix stupid.”

[Read: From the Archives: Fires, Your Station and You]

Here are a couple of quick items to add to the sensible suggestions in that article:

• All of that wiring and plastic in your station gives off nasty gases when it burns and though the smoke from plenum-rated cable is supposed to be “less toxic” they stop short of calling it “nontoxic.” Even if the smoke is not obscuring your vision there is a good chance you are breathing in stuff that your life insurance carrier would prefer you do not. If you can’t knock down a fire quickly with a single extinguisher consider backing out and make sure you close the door to limit the oxygen supply to the fire. The last part is very important. As you plan your fire escape strategy with staff make sure they understand that exiting the building and leaving every door wide open is a great way to provide all the oxygen that a fire needs to spread.
• Call the fire department. Not when your station is already on fire but before anything happens. Most fire departments are happy to do a “preplan” walk-through with you and doing so will usually buy you some good will when they point out that you have code violations. Keep in mind that should those code violations be discovered after you have a fire and someone is seriously hurt the consequences will be significantly more unpleasant than the embarrassment of discovering them while you walk-through with the fire department.

A preplan will not only be informative for you and your management but will also give the fire department the opportunity to see the layout of your facility and what hazards might lurk there when they do respond with the building full of smoke and time is of the essence.

• Fire extinguishers need to be checked and recharged. Since you are going to pay someone to do so, consider having your staff practice with them as part of that ongoing maintenance cycle. The time to learn how to use one correctly is NOT when you actually need to use one.
• While on the subject of not learning things when you need to use them, also considering bringing in a CPR instructor to do a class for your staff. One of them might save your life and they will certainly be grateful if they save a family member with training you forced them to take.

Radio World invites industry-oriented commentaries and responses. Send to Radio World.

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The post More on Fire Safety and Prevention appeared first on Radio World.

Her six massive transmitters may be quiet, but she is far from silent.

Amateur radio operators routinely talk to the world from station WC8VOA in West Chester, Ohio, located about 25 miles north of Cincinnati. This former VOA relay station is now a museum with collections from the Gray History of Wireless Radios; Powel Crosley Jr., and Cincinnati radio and TV broadcasting history; and the Voice of America.

The museum celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Bethany Station in September with a fundraiser to make the first floor of the museum accessible for people of all abilities.

SIT AT THE BOARD

The National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting is open every weekend from 1 to 4 p.m. Tours are given continuously on weekend afternoons by knowledgeable docents. It houses the Bethany station’s last control room and one of the remaining 250 kW Collins shortwave transmitters.

You can sit at the massive audio console that controlled the six shortwave transmitters and literally take a tour inside one of the Collins transmitters. You can view the massive switch gear, built during World War II, that changed Bethany’s 24 rhombic antennas to its six transmitters.

At one time, Bethany Station covered a square mile of property on former farmland. Today the museum sits on 14 acres and the antennas are gone; but with surrounding park acreage, you get a sense of the massive scale the site covered with towers and the miles of transmission lines and antenna wire.

The antennas are a memory, but the site’s spirit lives on.

The museum houses a large collection of radios from the early part of the 20th century, including names such as Hallicrafters, National, Drake and Collins. A large collection of Drake Amateur Radio products is always a must-see by visiting radio enthusiasts and ham radio operators.

Drake radios were produced nearby in Miamisburg, Ohio. An area dedicated to the Crosley Corporation shows off many of the Crosley brothers’ radio, TV and household products that were manufactured in Cincinnati. Crosley contributed heavily to the war effort during World War II, with the production of tens of thousands of portable radios for the U.S. Army and millions of proximity fuses for anti-aircraft ordinance.

Not only did Crosley develop radios, but content as well, with its on-air radio station WLW, which still broadcasts today on 700 AM. WLW transmits from its original site and the large Blaw-Knox tower can be seen from the VOA museum. The museum contains the original 50-watt AM transmitter that WLW started with in 1922.

WLW was the only U.S. station allowed to operate at 500,000 watts of power during the 1930s. The collection includes a bright red Crosley Hot Shot sports car, too. Crosley Corporation developed a number of vehicles during the late 1930s and resumed production after World War II until shutting down in 1952.

An additional area of the museum houses artifacts and memorabilia from the early era of Cincinnati radio and TV broadcasting. The Cincinnati Media Heritage section includes many of the celebrities who got their start at WLW and other local broadcasting outlets. These WLW radio stars, many of whom transitioned from radio to TV, include Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame; sisters Rosemary and Betty Clooney; Eddie Albert; Doris Day; The Mills Brothers; and Ruth Lyons.

Housed in three of Bethany’s old transmitter vaults, the history of broadcasting showcases the talent and equipment that made Cincinnati an early nursery for radio and television entertainment. Artifacts include equipment from a 1930s radio station; a 1950s AM station, including disc jockey’s audio console and turntables; and a 1000-watt transmitter. A very early and massive RCA Victor color television camera is on display, along with other television and video equipment.

RADIO LIVES HERE

Our amateur radio station is operated under FCC license WC8VOA and is manned by the West Chester Amateur Radio Association.

The station has seven operating positions equipped with modern and vintage amateur radio gear. Antennas cover the radio spectrum from two meters down to 160 meters. The former VOA receiving satellite dish has been converted to 10 GHz transmit and receive capabilities for EME (Earth Moon Earth) bounce. Signals are sent to the moon and the dish used as a passive satellite to communicate with other amateur radio operators.

The club participates in radio contests, portable operations and local STEM events. It averages some 6,000 contacts per year, covering modes of voice and digital and CW. The club also operates two FM repeaters on two meters and 440 Mhz.

Operators are in the shack every weekend and hold an open house every Wednesday night for radio enthusiasts and those interested in obtaining a ham radio license. Our WC8VOA call sign is recognized by many of our fellow radio amateurs around the world. We have made contacts from all seven continents and hundreds of countries.

Radio is still an important part of our lives. Whether it is listening to AM, FM or satellite services, radio remains a viable source of our news and entertainment.

CINCINNATI LIARS

Voice of America broadcasts were never intended for Americans. They were targeted to people living in oppressed countries where media was censored to change people’s minds by providing sourced and accurate news.

In fact, the VOA Charter (Public Law 94-350), which was passed in 1976 during the Ford administration, states that VOA news will be “accurate, objective and comprehensive.” It will also “represent America, not any single segment of American society, and will therefore present a balanced and comprehensive projection of significant American thought and institutions.” Last, the VOA is mandated to “present the policies of the United States clearly and effectively and will also present responsible discussions and opinion on these policies.”

VOA news and feature stories are still broadcast and transmitted today to more than 275 million people weekly in 40-plus languages in nearly 100 countries. VOA programs are delivered on multiple platforms, including radio, television, web and mobile via a network of more than 3,000 media outlets worldwide.

Broadcasts have aired continually for more than 75 years, along with sister stations of Radio Free Europe; Radio Liberty; Radio Free Asia; and Radio Martí.

Here is the crux of the matter for all of us at the VOA museum: Once Bethany Station began operation during mid-World War II, an infuriated Adolf Hitler was quoted as saying on one of his radio broadcasts to never listen to those “Cincinnati Liars.” We’re proud to be part of the VOA heritage we are entrusted with and even more proud to be related to those “liars” from Cincinnati.

But while we’re proud of our heritage, I must be honest: The museum is housed in an aging, uninsulated, 75-year-old building that constantly needs repairs. We receive no federal funding, and this is our big fundraising push for the year.

Joe Molter

Our workforce of docents, conservators and maintenance crews are all unpaid volunteers. And many of our volunteers come from our local radio club, the West Chester Amateur Radio Association.

Please help us out with a donation. For information on the museum and how you can help with donations, visit www.voamuseum.org. Please donate today. If you’re interested in our amateur radio group, additional information is at wc8voa.org.

Joe Molter, WCARA, N8IDA, ARS Operator, is with the National VOA Museum of Broadcasting.

The post National VOA Museum Asks for Your Support appeared first on Radio World.

A ham radio operator who was repeatedly warned not to deliberately interfere with other amateur radio operators has been slapped with a $17,000 forfeiture.

Commission’s rules are clear on the issue: Amateur radio licensees may not monopolize the ham radio frequency for their exclusive use. Yet the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission said New York resident Harold Guretzky has not followed those rules and is instead an alleged “repeat offender” who has long misused the local amateur radio service by interfering with other operators.

Guretzky, licensee of station K6DPZ in Richmond Hill, N.Y., has been the center of numerous complaints over the last several years over his attempts to prevent other amateur licensees from using the local ham radio repeater.

[Read: Pennsylvania Ham to Pay $7k Fine for Intentional Interference]

Back in June 2017, the bureau issued a warning letter to Guretzky, advising him of the nature of the allegations against him and directing him to refrain from using the repeater going forward. Additional complaints came forward again in August 2017; the bureau said that Guretzky had also begun making threats against other operators.

Agents came twice in 2018 to Richmond Hill to check on Guretzky. The first time, agents advised Guretzky in writing that he was prohibited from using the local repeater. The second visit revealed that Guretzky was again allegedly interfering again with the local repeater and making threatening comments toward other amateur operators. This was followed by a phone call from the Regional Director of the Region One Enforcement Bureau who cautioned Guretzky, again, to not use the repeater.

The commission moved to take action against Guretzky with a formal notice of apparent liability for forfeiture. The bureau said that Guretzky deliberately violated the Communications Act and the FCC Rules — despite receiving multiple notifications that he cease this activity.

As a result, the commission found that Guretzy’s “repeated, intentional and egregious apparent violations” warrant a fine of $17,000, which is an upward adjustment of the $10,000 base forfeiture often assigned in cases like these. Any future violations by Guretzky may result in additional forfeitures, the commission said.

Guretzky has 30 days to pay the forfeiture or to respond to the commission.

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The post Ham Radio Operator Handed $17,000 Notice of Forfeiture appeared first on Radio World.

A California LPFM station has some compliance steps to consider after agents from the Enforcement Bureau came a calling.

In March 2019, an agent with the Federal Communications Commission observed several alleged violations after visiting low-power station KQEV(LP) in Covina, Calif., including concerns with the station’s antenna, transmitter and its EAS log.

[Read: Arizona LP Licensee Agrees to $1,500 Consent Decree]

Specifically, the agent noted that the station’s transmitting antenna was allegedly 7 meters higher above ground than it should have been and was located at coordinates that were about 40 meters away from its authorized site. The station’s transmitters was also allegedly found to be out of compliance; the model in use is not certified for use at that station, the agent reported.

The agent also noted irregularities with the station’s record keeping logs. Stations are required to keep an entry of each test and activation of the Emergency Alert System and at the time of inspection, the agent noted that no EAS log was available.

The next step for Chinese Sound of Oriental and West Heritage, which is licensee of KQEV, is to provide additional information to the FCC on these alleged violations. That means Chinese Sound must submit a written statement within 20 days explaining each alleged violation and include a timeline for completion of any pending corrective action. The commission plans to use all of that information to determine what, if any, enforcement action will be handed out from there.

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The post California LPFM Asked to Explain Alleged Transmission, EAS Violations appeared first on Radio World.

The author is affiliated with Wheatstone, which manufactures the WheatNet-IP audio network.

Anyone who has ever tried to fit a week’s worth of personal items into carry-on luggage understands the problem. It’s impossible to pack audio in the megabits-per-second range into bandwidth in the kbps range without an IP audio codec, and that means losing some bits in the process.

Dee McVicker

The problem isn’t just that audio comes with a lot of baggage, either. It’s that you can’t always be sure what to pack. Opus, G.722, AAC, they are different algorithms and have different ways of packaging bits for transport across an IP link. You might use brand X on your end of a remote, but that’s not going to fly if it’s brand Y on the far end.

ENTER SIP

Up until now, this has been resolved by simply using the same codec at the studio and at your remote truck or STL at the far end. But all that goes out the window once you want to open accessibility, as is often the case for combining studios across a region or establishing a network operation center in the cloud. Then, it’s hard to control which codec unit you’ll be handing off to on the far end, and it’s an impossible task if you’re handing off to more than one endpoint with more than one codec variation, which can be the case for multiple transmitter sites.

Enter SIP, or session initiation protocol, which is often associated with VoIP communications but also makes a pretty darn good interoperability standard for codecs.

SIP is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining and terminating real-time multimedia sessions.

It initiates a session by sending a message to an endpoint SIP address that can be linked to a physical phone or a software application through a SIP service provider. There’s a header component of the SIP message that conveys information about the message and also a description component (called a session description protocol or SDP) that conveys information such as codec formats.

An “invite” is sent to the far end, and once acknowledged, SIP discovers the codecs in common between the two end points and determines which to use.

[Read: Jay Tyler’s Top 5 AoIP Trends]

Codec product manufacturers have been interested in SIP for some. IP audio network manufacturers like Wheatstone are also interested in SIP, in part because it makes it possible to seamlessly transport AoIP from a remote sporting or news event to the studio network without regard to codec brand.

IMPLICATIONS

But the wider applications for SIP go way beyond remotes.

SIP is already playing a central role in the next level of consolidating broadcast operations, where for example, one studio is carrying all the programming for a group of stations in a region. It’s likely that some or all of a group’s programming and operating functions will be hosted by a cloud service provider.

Combined with audio control and codecs as part of the AoIP network, SIP solves that issue of getting IP audio out of the studio network and onto the public network for a number of beneficial purposes that will ultimately lead to more flexibility and cost savings for broadcasters.

The post Something More to SIP appeared first on Radio World.

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Media Bureau Grants In Part Request for Waiver of Video Description Rules Filed by NBCUniversal on behalf of USA Network

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An FM translator station in Massachusetts won’t be built after the Media Bureau dismissed an appeal because of complaints of interference and a subsequent reconsideration request that fell outside a 30-day window of time.

In 2017, Emmanuel Communications filed an application permit seeking authorization to construct a cross-service FM translator station to rebroadcast station WNEB(AM) in Worcester, Mass.

Soon after, a petition to deny was filed by Plymouth Rock Broadcasting Co. who argued that the proposed translator would cause interference to listeners of one of its stations, WPLM(FM) in Plymouth. Emmanuel responded to say that the anticipated interference was minimal and that displacement relief would be the best remedy for that single listener. After all, argued Emmanuel, authorizing this translator would help further the commission’s long-standing goal of revitalizing the AM radio service.

But 2018, the Media Bureau found that the interference to the listener of WPLM(FM) would be in violation of FCC Rules. The bureau thus dismissed the permit application.

Emmanuel responded with a Petition for Reconsideration saying that the bureau was in error and it proposed two alternatives to dismissal: one, waiving a section of the rules and granting the permit application (with the understanding that Emmanuel would submit a modification application proposing displacement relief if any actual interference should occur); and secondly, allowing the permit application to remain pending while Emmanuel negotiated an agreement with Plymouth Rock.

But the bureau demurred and said that the rules expressly prohibit the filing of contingent applications for new stations and that Emmanuel had not demonstrated that waiver of the rules was justified. The Media Bureau also rejected Emmanuel’s argument that it should reinstate the application to allow it to negotiate an agreement with Plymouth Rock.

The bureau also reminded Emmanuel that it could have amended its permit application while it was pending to correct the interference violation — or even could have filed a corrective amendment after the dismissal of the application. But the licensee did not do so within the specific time period.

Emmanuel filed another application for review saying the bureau was mistaken in its ruling, saying the interference rules violation is “a processing obstacle” but not a true technical defect. The licensee says the amendments proposed by the bureau would not have been successful and it argues that the bureau failed to recognize the “policy ramifications of failing to exercise its waiver authority.”

In this case, Emmanuel said, the bureau’s decision subverts the policy objectives that informed the AM revitalization proceeding. Emmanuel took the next step of filing an amendment to its permit application and proposed to operate the translator at minimal power and said it would seek “displacement relief” upon grant of the application.

But when the commission reviewed the Media Bureau’s actions and Emmanuel’s application for review, it found that Emmanuel’s evolving arguments — including the waiver and the amendment — were untimely. The commission also dismissed Emmanuel’s assertion that one of the listener affidavits from Plymouth was unacceptably ambiguous.

As a result, the commission dismissed both the application and request for review.

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The post Massachusetts FM Translator Nixed After Interference Concerns appeared first on Radio World.

The long-awaited move to sell six Emmis radio stations in the Austin market has gotten the final green light from the Federal Communications Commission.

Earlier this month the FCC granted a waiver request submitted by Emmis Austin Radio Broadcasting Co. to transfer control of its licensed stations in the Austin Nielson Audio Market to Sinclair Telecable. Together, Sinclair and Emmis operated the cluster of stations for the last 16 years. In June 2019, it was announced that Emmis would sell the radio cluster for $39.3 million.

But first, the group had to run the FCC waiver gauntlet.

The waiver was being requested because, under the FCC’s local ownership rules, a licensee in the Austin market can have an attributable interest in up to seven commercial radio stations, with not more than four being in the same AM or FM service. Up until now, Emmis had interest in five FM stations in the Austin market, which is one more FM station than is permitted under the commission’s rules.

Of note: FCC rules allowed for common ownership of those six stations under local ownership rules in effect in 2003; that combination was grandfathered in when the latest local ownership rules were modified. According to the commission,  grandfathered combinations are allowed to continue as long as the station’s licensee does not propose a change that creates a new violation of the ownership rules. If such a change is proposed, however, that grandfathering terminates and the licensee must come into compliance with the new multiple ownership limits.

In this particular instance, Emmis needed a waiver from the commission to grant the application — or the partnership would have to divest one FM station in the market.

In requesting the waiver, Emmis said that the proposed transaction is not a sale of the partnership of its Austin stations but more akin to a corporate restructuring since Emmis and Sinclair Telecable are co-partners. The licensee argued that the continued grandfathering will serve the public interest by allowing the sustained operation of a thriving cluster, one which Emmis said offers market listeners diverse and distinct formats by one of its long-standing owners.

In this case, the FCC agreed.

The commission granted Emmis’ waiver request of the local ownership rules, saying that the move would not compromise viewpoint diversity and competition in the Austin market. The FCC also said that the structure of the Austin market itself favors grant of the waiver: The market is already highly diverse in terms of ownership and programming, the commission said, with at least 21 owners and 28 distinct program formats.

The move now gives Sinclair Telecable 100% ownership of those five stations, including KLBJ(FM), KGSR(FM), KLZT(FM), KROX(FM) and KBPA(FM).

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The post Emmis Succeeds in Efforts to Transfer Austin Stations to STI Telecable appeared first on Radio World.